MERGING FILES ON STORAGE AND RETRIEVE

• US 20100125591A1
• Filed: 11/19/2008
• Published: 05/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Western Digital Israel Limited (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SanDisk IL Ltd. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Golde, Ittai, Ben Tsvi, Yaakov, Hahn, Judah Gamliel
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers

Abstract

A client designates and transfers a file to a server in distinct chunks. The number of data chunks equals the number of communication sessions that are required to complete the transfer of the designated file to the server, that number being dependent on the number of times the communication session between the client and the server is interrupted. If the designated file includes several concatenated client files, each chunk of the designated file may include one or more such client files. Each chunk of the designated file may include some part of a client file and one or more whole client files. The byte-wise size or length of a chunk depends on the duration of the related communication session: the longer a communication session, the larger the related chunk. By transferring the designated file to the server as distinctly recognizable chunks, the need to retransmit large files to the server is avoided.

Claims

1. A method for transferring data from a client to a server, the method comprising:

by a client,

a) designating a file for transfer to a server;

b) establishing a communication session between the client and the server;

c) transferring the file to the server by using a unique variant of a file name of the file; and

d) if the communication session is interrupted before transfer of the file to the server is completed, repeating steps b) and c) as many times as required for the file transfer to be completed.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the unique variant of the file name includes a unique suffix, prefix, or file extension to the file name.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein the unique variant of the file name includes a unique sequential identifier.

4. The method as in claim 3, wherein the unique sequential identifier includes an alphabetical, numeric, or alphanumeric index whose value is incremented for each time steps b) through d) are repeated.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein repeating steps b) and c) includes using information to identify an offset from which transfer of the rest of the file should continue.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein the client retrieves the information from the server each time before repeating steps b) and c).

7. The method as in claim 5, wherein the information is maintained and updated by the client.

8. The method as in claim 5, wherein the information includes a size of each part of the file that is transferred to the server, and wherein the offset is derived from the sizes of the transferred parts.

9. The method as in claim 8, wherein the offset is the sum of the sizes of the transferred parts excluding the size of the part that was transferred to the server during a previous communication session.

10. The method as in claim 1, further comprising assigning to a flag a repeating value or a non-repeating value to respectively indicate to a retrieving client whether transferring the file to the server has been completed or not.

11. The method as in claim 10, wherein the flag is assigned the repeating value before or during the first communication session and the non-repeating value after transfer of the file to the server is completed.

12. The method as in claim 1, wherein the file transferred to the server includes k files f₁, f₂, . . . , f_k (where 1≦

k≦

n).

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein if a communication session is interrupted during transfer of a particular one of the k files, the particular one of the k files is retransferred during a consecutive communication session.

14. The method as in claim 12, further comprising:

e) sequentially retrieving the k files from the server responsive to transferring the file name to the server.

15. The method as in claim 12, further comprising:

e) responsive to the client requesting the file from the server, retrieving the k files from the server as one concatenated file.

16. The method as in claim 1, wherein the file is transferred from the client to the server by using Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

17. A device with a client for files transfer, comprising:

a processor;

a memory device storing a client software application, the memory device being operatively linked with the processor and causing the processor to execute instructions of the client software application to,

a) designate a file for transfer to a server;

b) establish a communication session between the processor and the server;

c) transfer the designated file to the server by using a unique variant of a file name of the file; and

d) if the communication session is interrupted before transfer of the designated file to the server is completed, to repeat steps b) and c) as many times as required for the file transfer to be completed.